Sunday, February 27, 2011

$10 Maggianos Coupon

Sign up for the Maggiano's email list, and get a coupon for $10 off your next visit! Be thrifty about your dinner selections, and this could make for a moderately-priced date night!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Late night freezer cooking

So this is 2 days late, thanks to parent-teacher conferences yesterday and doing my freezer-bake at 10 PM the night before. **Disclaimer: I do NOT recommending 10 PM freezer-bake sessions! You'll see why in the rest of my post.

Last week, I stopped by Meijer after my grad class since it's close, and they clearance their produce that day. I picked up a bag of 12 Cubanelle peppers for $2, and my Mom (and my cooking muse) sent me my Aunt Marcia's recipe for stuffed peppers.

So, in looking at the recipe, it calls for 12 peppers. So, awesome! I have everything I need to double the recipe, so we'll go ahead and double the recipe and freeze the rest, right?.... Needless to say, I failed to notice that the recipe was for stuffing green peppers, and that my Cubanelle peppers were MUCH smaller than a regular green pepper.

So I went ahead and stuffed the 12 peppers I had:
You sprinkle cheese on them towards the end of the baking process...mmm, cheese! These were absolutely delicious! We had them last night, and the leftovers were packed in my lunch today by my wonderful hubby!

And yet, I still wound up with twice as much stuffing as I needed! So, decided to be creative, and had some frozen bell pepper strips from a previous clearanced produce purchase. I diced up a couple of peppers-worth, mixed it in, and decided to make...
"Stuffed Pepper" Casserole! (Are we noticing a cheese affinity in my cooking?)

Just as a note, freezing casseroles has really helped in making drastic strides in reducing our grocery budget. I've gotten a lot better about cooking from our pantry as much as possible. Once every week or two, I take an hour (or two) to destroy my kitchen. For just the two of us, being able to take a regular recipe and split it into smaller casserole dishes, or to double a recipe and freeze several pans takes away that excuse of not wanting to cook when I get home after my hour-long drive home from school.

Since the hubby gets home before me, I write baking instructions on the foil, and he can put the casserole in the oven timed to be ready when I get home! And honestly, ladies, isn't it wonderful to have dinner waiting for us when we get home? :-D

Heads up for all you "Canners"!


The Meijer stores in our area have clearanced out a lot of their canning supplies, and if you plan to have a garden or will be visiting a u-pick farm this summer, this would be a great time to snag some supplies!

Our store had the Original and Sugar-Free Pectin for $0.75 each (half off!), and all of their pickle mixes and spices were marked to half off as well ($1.29 each for the pickle mix). We made bread n' butter pickles last summer with some cucumbers we were given, and I hope to plant cucumbers in my own garden this summer. Nothing tops off an awesome sandwich like a dill pickle spear on the side. I remember growing up, and splitting one of those HUGE dill pickles (the ones in the big jar) with my Dad.

Hopefully your Meijer is doing the same!

Giveaway at Just 1 Step- The Daniadown Sherpini Throw

My friend Kara over at Just 1 Step is giving away a Daniadown Sherpini Throw! She's giving away multiple entries for sharing her link!



Head over and check out her blog and giveaway!




Friday, February 4, 2011

Mmm...Ribs!

So I misread the label on what I thought was a pork loin. I wound up with Ribs! Needless to say, no objection to the mishap from the hubby, who I think was more excited at the prospect of ribs than to the pork loin!

Pork Ribs with Molasses-Mustard Sauce Had to do a little searching, but Pillsbury.com had the perfect recipe, and I had the rest of the ingredients in the pantry!

I would have taken a picture, but I couldn't find the camera, and they didn't last long enough to find it! Verdict: This recipe is a keeper!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Snow day shopping trip!

Hubby was in need of a prescription refill, and since a lot of the markdowns happen around here on Tuesday, I went ahead and took care of the grocery shopping! Lots of really good deals this week!


Made a stop at Meijer first, hoping to catch the markdowns:

Pork loin: marked down to $6.00
10 green peppers discounted to $3.73
24-packs of Coke Zero and Diet Mountain Dew (not in the picture): 2 for $10
Bob Evans sausage: marked down to @$2.23, plus a .50 coupon (doubled to $1) = $1.23
Blueberry doughnut holes: marked down to $1.97 (hoping for another snow day so I can have a spiffy breakfast with the Hubby!)
Green giant frozen veggies: $1.00 each, plus 4 $.50-off coupons = free!

Non-coupon savings: $11.23
Coupon savings: $5.00
Total savings: $16.23
Total spent: $23.58



Kroger was the big score of the evening!
Stuff in the Mega-event:
2 Tidy cats litter: 1.99, plus 2 $1-off coupons = .99 (.49 each with ME)
All laundry detergent: 3.49, plus $1 coupon = $2.49 (1.99 with ME)
2 bottles of Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo: $3.00 plus 2 $1 coupons = $2 each (1.50 with ME)
4 bags of Chex Mix: 1.99 each, plus 2 .50/2 (doubled) coupons = $1.49 each (.99 with ME)
2 Finish dish packs: $3.49, plus a $2.25 off and a $1 off coupon = $1.86 each (1.36 with ME)
Advil congestion: $4.49, plus $2 coupon = $2.49 (1.99 with ME)
3 Kraft Cheese singles: $1.99, plus 3 $1 coupons = .99 (.49 with ME)
4 Philly Cream Cheese: $1.48 plus 2 $1/2 coupons = .99 (.49 with ME)
Uncle Ben's Brown Rice: $1.49 plus .75 (doubled to $1) coupon = .49 (free with ME)
Beggin Strips: $2.99 plus $1 coupon = $1.99 (1.49 with ME)
ICBINB tub: $1.79 plus .60 (doubled to $1) coupon = .79 (.29 with ME)
Non-event deals:
5 boxes of Kelloggs Special K: $3.24 each, stacked with 4 B1G1 coupons = .64 each
8 pork chops: marked down to $7.23
3 packages of Perdue ground chicken: marked down to $1.09 each
2 jars of Ragu: $1.93 each, with .50/2 coupon (doubled) plus a $1/2 e-coupon = .93 each
2 Activia 4-packs: 1.88 each plus 2 $1 coupons = .88 each
Gallon of milk: $2.55, plus coupon for free gallon with $100 purchase = free!
Frigo string cheese: $5.49 plus $.55 (doubled to $1) coupon = $4.49
Ham: $3.99 plus .55 (doubled to $1) = $2.99
Loofa: $1 (ours is falling apart!)
4 Butterfinger candies: 2/$1, plus $1/2 coupons = free!
Yoplait yogurt cup: .60 plus FREE coupon = free!


Coupon savings: $45.76
Store coupon & Kroger plus savings: 41.93
Total savings: $87.69
Total spent: $66.80 (57% savings)

And as I was writing the blog post, I got the email cancellation of school tomorrow! Looks like I'll get to make that pork loin into something tasty!